Adobe and Microsoft Work Together to Integrate PDF Services into Office

Adobe and Microsoft recently announced that they plan to expand their ongoing partnership that began last September. As part of the collaboration between the two software giants, PDF services are going to be more closely integrated into Microsoft’s Office 365.

The most obvious result of this integration is that Office 365 users with a subscription to Adobe Document Cloud (DC) will have the option to save documents as PDF files from within the ribbon of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive and SharePoint. It is a move that builds on the previous success of Adobe Sign’s Office integration, and strengthens it further.

Prior to this change, users were able to save Office documents as PDF files, but it required several menu steps to do so. The presence of a dedicated button in the ribbon makes it simpler and is also indicative of how close the integration between Adobe’s PDF services and Microsoft is starting to get.

Although the partnership will benefit all Office 365 and Adobe DC users, it is mainly aimed at businesses. Adobe’s goal is for businesses running Office 365 to be able to create PDF documents within any Office applications then subsequently get them reviewed and signed with Adobe Sign without leaving the application.

According to Adobe, some Office applications (i.e. OneDrive and SharePoint) will be able to convert PDF documents back into Office documents so that they can be edited more easily. Effectively that will help users switch between Office documents and PDF without requiring third-party solutions.

Despite the strength of the partnership and its potential, its one caveat is that for users to benefit they will have to have active subscriptions to both Office 365 as well as Adobe DC. Considering many businesses already have such subscriptions however and stand to benefit directly, it is an enticing proposition.

For average users, however, it may not be as enticing having to pony up for two subscriptions to gain access to services that they may use infrequently. Having a convenient way to switch between Office document and PDF as well as edit them will be appealing, but other PDF editing software Mac or PC such as Movavi PDF Editor may be more cost-effective.

Alongside its collaboration with Microsoft, Adobe has announced several other ongoing initiatives to innovate around the PDF file format. One of the more interesting developments is an update to its free mobile app Adobe Scan that is able to scan documents as PDFs using the camera on any smartphone.

With the new update, Adobe Scan will now leverage the AI power of Adobe Sensei to not only scan business cards but automatically convert them into digital contacts. That gives it an edge over other scanning apps for mobile devices, including Microsoft Office Lens.

Overall the partnership between Microsoft and Adobe benefits both parties greatly, with the former being able to offer its key business users greater convenience, and the latter building on the status of PDF as a key document format. In light of its success so far, it is likely that further collaboration may be on the cards in the future.